Voters in Tokyo cast their votes today, Sunday, to decide whether to re-elect the governor of the Japanese capital, Yuriko Koike, for a third four-year term.
Analysts consider the vote a test for the ruling party, led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who supports Koike, the first woman to lead Tokyo's government.
Tokyo, a city with a population of 13.5 million, has huge political and cultural power and a budget equivalent to the budgets of some countries.
The position of Tokyo governor is also one of the most influential political positions in Japan, according to what the Associated Press reported.
Yuriko Koike is competing against a record number of 55 candidates, the most prominent of whom is also a woman. She is a former liberal-leaning MP, Renho, who is supported by opposition parties.
A Koike victory would be a victory for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by Kishiya, to which the longtime Tokyo mayor belongs.
The ruling party and its junior coalition partner, the Komeito Party, are informally supporting Koike's campaign.
Renho, who uses only one name and is running as an independent but has the support of the two main opposition parties, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the Japanese Communist Party, criticized Koike's relationship with Kishida's party, which has been the subject of a widespread scandal involving officials taking bribes.
Renho's victory would be a major setback to Kishida's chances in the ruling party's leadership elections scheduled for next September.
Key issues in the election campaign included measures related to the economy, disaster resilience in Tokyo, and falling birth numbers.
Japan's national fertility rate fell to a record low of 1.2 per woman last year, and Tokyo's fertility rate was 0.99, the lowest of any city in the country.
Who is Yuriko Koike?
Koike is a former TV presenter.
She was elected as a member of the Japanese Parliament for the first time in 1992, when she was 40 years old.
She held several key ministerial positions, including the environment and defense portfolios, under the Liberal Democratic Party that ruled the country for a long time.
She served as Tokyo governor for two consecutive terms and is seeking a third.
Its policies focus on providing benefits to married parents who are expecting and who are raising children.
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